Attorneys will help people at Springfield libraries on Thursday to prepare the documents needed to give direction about serious health care decisions.

Members of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association will be at the Brentwood Library, 2214 S. Brentwood Blvd.; the Library Center, 4653 S. Campbell Ave.; and the Library Station, 2535 N. Kansas Expressway, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday. The attorneys will provide free information about advance care planning and help complete the new Missouri Bar durable power of attorney for healthcare and healthcare directive forms.

"Fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient, and healthcare providers and facilities will be better equipped to address advance healthcare planning issues before a crisis occurs and be better able to honor patient wishes when the time comes to do so," said Crista Hogan, the executive director of the bar association.

The effort is part of a nationwide push to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision-making. National Healthcare Decisions Day was Tuesday.